• Atellah noted that investing in healthcare human resources is a strategic, far-reaching investment in the well-being and prosperity of the country.
• “If you have digitised all systems across the country and there are no personnel and no drugs how will it help?” he paused.
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Doctors have maintained that the only way to improve the quality of healthcare in the country is by investing in enough human resources.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) SG Davji Atellah has said the government should first invest in addressing shortages of doctors and essential medical supplies such as basic drugs and equipment.
He noted that investing in healthcare human resources is a strategic, far-reaching investment in the well-being and prosperity of the country.
He further reiterated the need to equip healthcare workers with the tools, training, and support needed to deliver quality healthcare services for all.
“Investment in healthcare doesn’t mean putting up new hospital buildings. You can build a seven-star healthcare facility in the country but with a high chance of it not being functional because it must have the health workforce,” Atellah noted.
He gave an example of the Managed Equipment Service (MES) project which saw high tech medical equipment sent to counties but some have remained un-operational due to lack of personnel and reagents to run them.
“The MES project is a good project in the sense that now there will be diagnostics and ICU equipment in different counties but they didn’t check who is going to operate the equipment and make it work,” he said.
“The report that came in indicated clearly many of those facilities end up rusting, they end up not giving service to Kenyans because there were no personnel and reagents to run them."
He noted that even though the plan by the government is to revolutionise the healthcare system through the recently enacted laws, the key on the agenda should be to ensure the policies translate to service delivery and availability of drugs in hospitals.
“If you have digitised all systems across the country and there are no personnel and no drugs how will it help?” he paused.
Last month, clinicians faulted the move by the government to hire 100,000 Community Health Promoters (CHP) without investing in commensurate healthcare workers.
The clinicians said the initial pledge by the government was to hire 20,000 healthcare workers and have an annual framework on how to employ more to bridge the existing gap.
Kenya Union of Clinical Officers Chairperson Peterson Wachira said the work of CHPs will be purely educating people about the disease that is prevalent in their locality, how to prevent it and what to do if they have the disease so as to access treatment.
He noted that when people who are referred to health facilities come, they will be met with inadequate health workers to attend to them, leading to frustrations.